Under 1200 calories a day - but full - is this OK?

Hi,

I've read loads of the posts regarding the 1200 calories and the fact most have more than this etc.  This is the minimum that the site will allow but I am struggling to eat that many in a day and dont want to just eat stuff to make up the calories if I am completely full and had good nutritous food all day. 

I'm 160lb and want to loose about 40lb (5'2" age 37) I started on this website about 3 weeks ago and have lost 6lb, a nice sensible 2lb per week which is what I am happy with.  I do do a bit of exercise, usually an exercise class for about 1hr (good mix of aerobic and strength and stretch/yoga) 3-5 times a week.

I gave up drinking a few months ago so only drink water (fizzy for a treat!!), my diet is really healthy, A rating most days with the right split between carb, protein and fat.  I also get all the vitamins and minerals that I need (only take calcium supplements as my diet is low on dairy due to intollerances).

The thing is the food I consume is very healthy, all cooked from scratch and weighed, the portions are decent (the reason for my weight gain was alcohol and portion size previously so they are much smaller than I used to have) and I always have 3 meals a day with healthy snacks (fruit and veg) during the day too.  I just really struggle to have 1200 cals, I manage 1000 but if I eat more I'm eating whilst I am full and eating for eatings sake.  I know that I could easily eat the 1200 if I scoffed a couple of biscuits / crisps / chocolate... or if I had burger and chips for dinner, but I dont often crave this and prefer not to eat anything that's full of refined sugar or processed.

I am losing weight steadily and feel so full of energy and my hair and skin has never been better, so should I just carry on and listen to the needs of my body rather than worry about eating a pre-defined calorie total each day??

I would definately try and at least eat 1200. 1000 is way to low.  For me, I started to feel light headed and very fatigued when I took it down to 1000 calories a day.

I am 172 lbs. 51 and have lost 35 lbs and still 15 lbs. more to go. I eat about 1200-1250 a day and have many small snacks a day and most of my calories are from supper. Usually chicken, fish ( lots of fish). I seem to be doing okay on 1200-1250 calories a day and am always full. From past experiences I would advise you to eat at least 1200, maybe even a bowl of popcorn for nightime snack ( air popped of course) or celery with low fat peanut butter. That extra 200 calories extra will not cause you to gain weight and you will be within a healthier calorie intake.

No, it's not okay.  If you can steadily eat less than 1200 calories/day then you have either slowed down your metabolism (which needs fixing by eating more) or your body just isn't good at telling you what it needs.  To fix either problem, you need to eat enough healthy food for long enough to accustom your body to what it should be getting.  Then, hopefully, it can start to tell you what it needs more accurately.  Bodies that aren't used to eating healthy can go into a bit of 'bulk shock' when they find out that 1000 calories of good healthy food is a lot bigger than 1000 calories of junk - or even than 3000 calories of junk.  So, all that bulk tricks you into feeling like you've had enough even when you're still missing key nutrients.

At a guess, I'd suggest that your diet is too low in fats.  Not the cookies and cakes and chips kind (though presumably it's low in those too), but the healthy kind that you find in nuts and avocados and vegetable oils.  You could easily increase your calories by 200/day by adding about 20 grams of healthy fats to your diet.  For example, half an avocado has 100 calories and is very tasty either diced and added to a salad or sliced into a sandwich (or onto whole grain crackers; top with garlic powder for extra deliciousness).  12 almonds also has about 100 calories; pair that with an ounce of dried fruit for a tasty healthy non-bulky snack of 200 calories.

I've always had a healthy diet since I was a kid, I love vegetables and would prefer to pile them on my plate than meat. I put on a lot of weight over a long period mainly due to alcohol and the odd packet of crisps (late night snack with my wine!).  I had always been slim and it was my boyfriend moving in who said that I didnt eat enough and that my metabolism must be so slow, so I started eating bigger meals (to the extent that I was bursting full) still healthy food, I went out much more and began to drink alot more.

I just didnt want to eat for eatings sake as I love the foods I'm eating so not wanting to find high calorie / fat foods just to up my input.

I think I will maybe take a closer look at the diet and add a bit more fish / nuts to my dinners as this will increase the good fats and calories too.  I'm not trying to lose weight by eating too few calories as I am aware that undereating does you no good and am concious of having a healthy diet.

No. this is not okay - under any circumstances.

Most people find they are still at least hungry - if not starving at 1200.

If you are finding you are full, my suggestion is that it's either a mental thing, or that your body is not digesting food properly. I think that no one should eat just 1200 calories, there's no way you can get all of your nutrition in there. even when dieting, it is an unsafe number. And by time you're ready to eat healthily you'll have to bump it up and probably gain all the weight back again. 

So, yeah. It may work for you to lose the weight, but it is not a long term number. Clearly you have slowed down your metabolism so much that you can only eat 1000 calories. Please tell me how you have the energy to do anything on this little amount..? Do you want to live off of 1000 - 1200 calories for the rest of your life..? 

If not, then you must raise your intake, and maybe up your excersise. Although with what i've read it seems like you could be eating closer to 1500 and still lose just as fine.

i'm sorry, i do NOT buy that you are " just full " off of 1000 calories. It's practically impossible without a medical excuse.

I have previously had many struggles with an eating disorder, so i'm not inexperienced in this area. 

It is not okay, if you want to be healthy.

I think I will get some nutrition advice as I was concerned at the fact I'm not hitting the 1200 minimum.  I havent suffered from lack of energy, infact the opposite since I gave up the dreaded wine! Get a few rumbles in the day but always snack when that happens.

Maybe my food scales are out!! lol

I always have a big bowl of museli and rice milk for breakfast with some fruit.  Lunch is a bit weak as I generally have soup.  More fruit or veg snacks throughout the day then a meal at 7pm ish, vegetable rice or new potatoes & salmon or chicken with salad. Or a 5 bean chilli and rice, that type of thing.  And usually some satsumas or grapes / watermelon etc. 

I think I'll have more nuts, although I was cutting them out as I used to eat them by the handful throughout the day (monkey nuts especially or cashews). A good high cal healthy snack.  I think the issue may be that I just dont eat the high calorie treats that a lot of people do like biscuits etc, but I never have, or desserts, just not got a sweet tooth.

Thanks for all your advice, I was generally waiting for a few tummy rumbles before having a snack but think I will just have to eat higher calorie snacks (healthy of course) to bump up the cals.  I thought my body would signal if it needed more food, or like someone else said be a bit light headed etc, maybe it is a bit phsycological that I'm wanting to loose weight, but again its not like I'm losing a silly amount each week.  I certainly dont want to lower my metabolism so will look into it more : )

It's really easy to get an extra 200 or 300 cals..    An extra ounce of dry pasta going into the pot at supper time is a quick 100 cals, for example.   An extra ounce of dry oats in the morning, ditto.   Adding a small  bread roll with a little butter to your lunchtime soup could get you 200 or so.  Another banana as a snack or a dessert = 100.   A few teaspoons of olive oil on a salad or stirred into your chilli... same.   None of those will challenge you that much.

I'd also suggest that you have a day soon where you get your full energy needs... in your case about 1900 cals.   You don't have to eat junk or drink wine but by giving your body an injection of energy and nutrition you can perk up a jaded appetite.  Similarly you could try some new and different foods, different flavours.   So dig out a few new recipes and try some of those.

I'm with GI on this one - she rocks and knows her stuff.

Lately there seems to be lots of these posts asking this Q.  Anyway - search previous posts to give you ideas about dense foods - such as nut butters, avocados, oil, seeds.  All will bump up your calories but will not add that much bulk so you don't get that full feeling.

Just for info, yesterday I ate 3000 worth of cals and I stepped on the scales )out of interest) to discover I was half a pound lighter.  The cals I ate were seeds, avocados, almond butter, rice cakes, lean chicken, rice, veg and fruit.  Nothing remotely 'bad' (hate that term!)  and even if it was, so what?!

1200 is the minimum calories needed to keep the average body healthy.  I would recommend you discuss with your doctor if your body can go with less, but as other posts have metioned, try eating 10-20 almonds (100-200 calories) or 1/2 an avocado.  Both of these foods have great health benefits and have enough calories to get you over the 1200 mark.  Good luck!

I think you have some good ideas about increasing your intake, which is great.  I'm going to have to agree with Jane here that you should probably do a maintenance day as soon as you can - maybe even 2 or 3 of them.  Get the calories through healthy foods, or treat yourself to something.  This should help reset your appetite and metabolism.  Then you can go back to eating at least 1200 calories a day - and if you work out, you may need to eat more than that too keep from losing muscle.